The reality of the situation is that you can’t please everybody. Any decision for a group larger than five (if not smaller) is likely to work out poorly for at least one member. Someone will likely feel slighted, if not altogether pissed off and you’ll hear about it. Luckily, it’s not your job to make everyone happy.

Really.

Your job is to move your group forward. Your job is to ensure that as many people as possible (within reason) can participate. It’s too easy to miss an opportunity because one member isn’t able to participate, or doesn’t care for the topic or the venue or the day. Make a decision that will benefit the majority of the group and move forward.

People who want to be a part of the group will find a way to participate if its important to them and in time you’ll find the right balance to ensure as many people as possible can participate.

LifeHacker points to the yet-to-be-released Muji Chronotebook Non-linear Day Planner, which provides an interesting way to plan your day. Gone are the normal grids and standard sequence of hours and dates. They have been replaced by pages that display “time on an axis, like an analog clock.” One page is dedicated to the morning and the other to the evening. So you add your events to the AM or PM page, writing your “plans like spokes on a bicycle wheel.”

I don’t think it would work for me (I’m not a heavy user of day planners anyway), but I really love that they are forging a different solution to the problem of planning one’s schedule.